Notts County

Wes Morgan can still remember the acute feeling of desolation when he was rejected by Notts County at the age of 15. His dreams of becoming a professional footballer apparently in ruins, he went back to college to continue a business studies degree, and to contemplate an uncertain future. But as Leicester City’s captain prepares to face Chelsea in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final, Morgan’s career is testament to the powers of perseverance. He played a leading role in Claudio Ranieri’s fairy tale by winning the Premier League title, has played in a Champions League quarter-final - after they did what Manchester United could not, and beat Sevilla in the round of 16 - and is now closing in on 700 career appearances. “I often speak to young kids trying to make their way into the professional game and tell my story. I think it’s a story that inspires people and tells you never to give up,” he says. “Young lads can be low on confidence, unsure on how things are going to work out but you have to keep going to follow your dreams. “I never thought I’d be in the Premier League when I was released by Notts County. They only offered two YTS contracts and I was the odd one out. I thought that was it, done and dusted for me, and semi-pro would be the best I could get. Morgan played an integral part in the least likely Premier League title win of all time Credit: afp “I was playing for a load of teams with my mates on Saturdays and Sundays, a young lad playing in an adult’s league. Fortunately I got the opportunity to have trials at Nottingham Forest and that’s where it all began. “Now I’m sitting here as a Premier League winner and that’s a magnificent achievement, considering where I came from. I don’t think I’ll truly digest it all until I’ve finished my career.” Morgan’s story is indeed remarkable, and a stirring rags-to-riches tale that has been less documented than more eminent team-mates such as Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez. He moved to Leicester from Nottingham Forest in January 2012 for just £1m after a contract wrangle, with Nigel Pearson’s team stuck in the Championship swamp. The next six years have been what the centre-half describes as “a rollercoaster” and he can never have envisaged what has unfolded. Promotion to the top-flight in 2014 was followed by that stirring Great Escape, when they won seven of their last nine league games to light the blue touch-paper for their incredible title win. Even now, Morgan struggles to escape the memories of May 2016, when he lifted the trophy on an evening which will leave an indelible mark in Premier League history. Morgan's career is testament to the powers of perseverance Credit: John Robertson “I was out shopping in Birmingham a few weeks ago and there was a Leicester fan talking to me about how we won the league, the trophy bus parade going past her house and everything else. It feels surreal, even though it seems so long ago,” he says, sitting in a study room at the club’s training ground. “The Champions League was also an unbelievable time. To reach the quarter-finals was an achievement I don’t think we got enough credit for. We were newcomers and we did it our way. We took Atletico Madrid to the wire. “I’ve had amazing times since I came to Leicester, beyond my wildest dreams if I’m being honest. But football is always moving and you can’t stand still or be dwelling on the past. “The time to really look back and remember the special moments is when there are no interruptions.” Morgan has a special reason to ensure Claude Puel’s Leicester can complete a miserable week for Chelsea and Antonio Conte, whose European excursions were ended by Barcelona on Wednesday. The FA Cup is one competition in which Morgan has endured frustration, never progressing beyond the quarter-finals. “I would say it’s the last box to be ticked for me. Everyone knows the history and prestige of the competition, being an FA Cup winner would be second to winning the league,” he says. My favourite ever Premier League match “I’m not getting any younger so there’s not too many years left for me to do something in this competition. I’m 34 now, I’ve got a year left [on my contract] and I’m definitely feeling the aches and pains. This could be my last big chance.” There will also be an element of revenge for Morgan at the King Power Stadium on Sunday, as it was against Chelsea that his FA Cup dream ended in 2012. Fernando Torres ended a 24-game goal drought with two goals as a Chelsea team including the likes of Petr Cech, Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge coasted to a 5-2 victory. “That was a real down-point, especially at that stage in my career. But this is definitely the biggest tie of the round and a huge chance for us to reach a semi-final at Wembley. “Chelsea have not done as well as they expected this season, they are now out of the Champions League, so they will probably see the FA Cup as something to make their season positive, rather like ourselves. There’s a lot to play for. “I’ve not experienced a semi-final before but we’ve got a good chance of it happening. This would definitely keep the fairy tale going...”

Wes Morgan can still remember the acute feeling of desolation when he was rejected by Notts County at the age of 15. His dreams of becoming a professional footballer apparently in ruins, he went back to college to continue a business studies degree, and to contemplate an uncertain future. But as Leicester City’s captain prepares to face Chelsea in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final, Morgan’s career is testament to the powers of perseverance. He played a leading role in Claudio Ranieri’s fairy tale by winning the Premier League title, has played in a Champions League quarter-final - after they did what Manchester United could not, and beat Sevilla in the round of 16 - and is now closing in on 700 career appearances. “I often speak to young kids trying to make their way into the professional game and tell my story. I think it’s a story that inspires people and tells you never to give up,” he says. “Young lads can be low on confidence, unsure on how things are going to work out but you have to keep going to follow your dreams. “I never thought I’d be in the Premier League when I was released by Notts County. They only offered two YTS contracts and I was the odd one out. I thought that was it, done and dusted for me, and semi-pro would be the best I could get. Morgan played an integral part in the least likely Premier League title win of all time Credit: afp “I was playing for a load of teams with my mates on Saturdays and Sundays, a young lad playing in an adult’s league. Fortunately I got the opportunity to have trials at Nottingham Forest and that’s where it all began. “Now I’m sitting here as a Premier League winner and that’s a magnificent achievement, considering where I came from. I don’t think I’ll truly digest it all until I’ve finished my career.” Morgan’s story is indeed remarkable, and a stirring rags-to-riches tale that has been less documented than more eminent team-mates such as Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez. He moved to Leicester from Nottingham Forest in January 2012 for just £1m after a contract wrangle, with Nigel Pearson’s team stuck in the Championship swamp. The next six years have been what the centre-half describes as “a rollercoaster” and he can never have envisaged what has unfolded. Promotion to the top-flight in 2014 was followed by that stirring Great Escape, when they won seven of their last nine league games to light the blue touch-paper for their incredible title win. Even now, Morgan struggles to escape the memories of May 2016, when he lifted the trophy on an evening which will leave an indelible mark in Premier League history. Morgan's career is testament to the powers of perseverance Credit: John Robertson “I was out shopping in Birmingham a few weeks ago and there was a Leicester fan talking to me about how we won the league, the trophy bus parade going past her house and everything else. It feels surreal, even though it seems so long ago,” he says, sitting in a study room at the club’s training ground. “The Champions League was also an unbelievable time. To reach the quarter-finals was an achievement I don’t think we got enough credit for. We were newcomers and we did it our way. We took Atletico Madrid to the wire. “I’ve had amazing times since I came to Leicester, beyond my wildest dreams if I’m being honest. But football is always moving and you can’t stand still or be dwelling on the past. “The time to really look back and remember the special moments is when there are no interruptions.” Morgan has a special reason to ensure Claude Puel’s Leicester can complete a miserable week for Chelsea and Antonio Conte, whose European excursions were ended by Barcelona on Wednesday. The FA Cup is one competition in which Morgan has endured frustration, never progressing beyond the quarter-finals. “I would say it’s the last box to be ticked for me. Everyone knows the history and prestige of the competition, being an FA Cup winner would be second to winning the league,” he says. My favourite ever Premier League match “I’m not getting any younger so there’s not too many years left for me to do something in this competition. I’m 34 now, I’ve got a year left [on my contract] and I’m definitely feeling the aches and pains. This could be my last big chance.” There will also be an element of revenge for Morgan at the King Power Stadium on Sunday, as it was against Chelsea that his FA Cup dream ended in 2012. Fernando Torres ended a 24-game goal drought with two goals as a Chelsea team including the likes of Petr Cech, Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge coasted to a 5-2 victory. “That was a real down-point, especially at that stage in my career. But this is definitely the biggest tie of the round and a huge chance for us to reach a semi-final at Wembley. “Chelsea have not done as well as they expected this season, they are now out of the Champions League, so they will probably see the FA Cup as something to make their season positive, rather like ourselves. There’s a lot to play for. “I’ve not experienced a semi-final before but we’ve got a good chance of it happening. This would definitely keep the fairy tale going...”

Wes Morgan can still remember the acute feeling of desolation when he was rejected by Notts County at the age of 15. His dreams of becoming a professional footballer apparently in ruins, he went back to college to continue a business studies degree, and to contemplate an uncertain future. But as Leicester City’s captain prepares to face Chelsea in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final, Morgan’s career is testament to the powers of perseverance. He played a leading role in Claudio Ranieri’s fairy tale by winning the Premier League title, has played in a Champions League quarter-final - after they did what Manchester United could not, and beat Sevilla in the round of 16 - and is now closing in on 700 career appearances. “I often speak to young kids trying to make their way into the professional game and tell my story. I think it’s a story that inspires people and tells you never to give up,” he says. “Young lads can be low on confidence, unsure on how things are going to work out but you have to keep going to follow your dreams. “I never thought I’d be in the Premier League when I was released by Notts County. They only offered two YTS contracts and I was the odd one out. I thought that was it, done and dusted for me, and semi-pro would be the best I could get. Morgan played an integral part in the least likely Premier League title win of all time Credit: afp “I was playing for a load of teams with my mates on Saturdays and Sundays, a young lad playing in an adult’s league. Fortunately I got the opportunity to have trials at Nottingham Forest and that’s where it all began. “Now I’m sitting here as a Premier League winner and that’s a magnificent achievement, considering where I came from. I don’t think I’ll truly digest it all until I’ve finished my career.” Morgan’s story is indeed remarkable, and a stirring rags-to-riches tale that has been less documented than more eminent team-mates such as Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez. He moved to Leicester from Nottingham Forest in January 2012 for just £1m after a contract wrangle, with Nigel Pearson’s team stuck in the Championship swamp. The next six years have been what the centre-half describes as “a rollercoaster” and he can never have envisaged what has unfolded. Promotion to the top-flight in 2014 was followed by that stirring Great Escape, when they won seven of their last nine league games to light the blue touch-paper for their incredible title win. Even now, Morgan struggles to escape the memories of May 2016, when he lifted the trophy on an evening which will leave an indelible mark in Premier League history. Morgan's career is testament to the powers of perseverance Credit: John Robertson “I was out shopping in Birmingham a few weeks ago and there was a Leicester fan talking to me about how we won the league, the trophy bus parade going past her house and everything else. It feels surreal, even though it seems so long ago,” he says, sitting in a study room at the club’s training ground. “The Champions League was also an unbelievable time. To reach the quarter-finals was an achievement I don’t think we got enough credit for. We were newcomers and we did it our way. We took Atletico Madrid to the wire. “I’ve had amazing times since I came to Leicester, beyond my wildest dreams if I’m being honest. But football is always moving and you can’t stand still or be dwelling on the past. “The time to really look back and remember the special moments is when there are no interruptions.” Morgan has a special reason to ensure Claude Puel’s Leicester can complete a miserable week for Chelsea and Antonio Conte, whose European excursions were ended by Barcelona on Wednesday. The FA Cup is one competition in which Morgan has endured frustration, never progressing beyond the quarter-finals. “I would say it’s the last box to be ticked for me. Everyone knows the history and prestige of the competition, being an FA Cup winner would be second to winning the league,” he says. My favourite ever Premier League match “I’m not getting any younger so there’s not too many years left for me to do something in this competition. I’m 34 now, I’ve got a year left [on my contract] and I’m definitely feeling the aches and pains. This could be my last big chance.” There will also be an element of revenge for Morgan at the King Power Stadium on Sunday, as it was against Chelsea that his FA Cup dream ended in 2012. Fernando Torres ended a 24-game goal drought with two goals as a Chelsea team including the likes of Petr Cech, Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge coasted to a 5-2 victory. “That was a real down-point, especially at that stage in my career. But this is definitely the biggest tie of the round and a huge chance for us to reach a semi-final at Wembley. “Chelsea have not done as well as they expected this season, they are now out of the Champions League, so they will probably see the FA Cup as something to make their season positive, rather like ourselves. There’s a lot to play for. “I’ve not experienced a semi-final before but we’ve got a good chance of it happening. This would definitely keep the fairy tale going...”

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.

There are more important matches to play and far more formidable ­opponents to face, but the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City has achieved its first piece of silverware, and the significance of that should not be underestimated. The glittering prizes of the ­Premier League, for which they are champions-elect, and the Champions League, remain in their ­immediate sights, but they are ­cruelly distant dreams for an ­Arsenal side who are slipping away season by season under Arsene Wenger. Instead, football supporters in this country, and maybe even around Europe, are going to have to get used to the sight of players in those sky blue jerseys cavorting on the pitch in celebration. The quadruple may have gone, but the treble remains distinctly possible. This appears the first of many trophies for Guardiola’s City and a glance at the substitutes’ bench showed the youthful power they have to call on for the future. That bench had an average age of just 21.6 years, with 17-year-old Phil Foden coming on late in the game. “Win titles and you have to win more,” Guardiola said afterwards. It sounded like a promise; a mantra; a threat to the opposition. City did not even have to play that well to overwhelm Arsenal and win the Carabao Cup with goals by Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, and it felt ­appropriate – given the accusations of spending and buying success – that those goals came from three players who Guardiola inherited, three players towards the end of their careers who already have ­legendary status at the club. And so it was the old guard who ushered in the new era. Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings But Guardiola has made those players even better, which used to be what marked out Wenger. Now the Arsenal manager appears ever more like King Canute as he tries to defy the inevitable, and even when he involved himself in a touchline spat with Guardiola, following City’s first goal, he appeared like a man raging against the waves that were set to overwhelm him. When City did turn it on after half-time, Arsenal were left drowning. On that touchline, Guardiola wore a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan politicians – in defiance of the Football Association charge against him – and defiantly said he would continue to do so. As for the result, he appeared both elated and relieved as he joined in the celebrations. Sergio Aguero lobs home the opener Credit: AP Having exited the FA Cup this week against League One Wigan Athletic, Guardiola could not ­countenance another cup defeat, but this was never in doubt. Afterwards, Guardiola even admitted that, in the first half, his team had felt the pressure of playing a final. Now that has gone. Arsenal were disorganised, dispirited, lacking in resilience and leadership and at their passionless worst with the much-vaunted ­renaissance of Jack Wilshere ­ending in the midfielder trying to get City players booked. The fact is, Arsenal do not even play good football any more. An unhappy day for Jack Wilshere Credit: AP The only setback for City was a hamstring injury to Fernandinho, which appears set to rule him out for several weeks, and the key ­midfielder is a player they may struggle to replace. The manner of the goals said it all, especially the first goal. For all the brilliant purity of City’s football this season it was ironic that they scored from a route-one punt up the field from goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. It seemed simple enough to deal with, but the ball sailed over the head of the hapless Shkodran Mustafi, who stood appealing that he had been nudged by Aguero, who ran on to lift his shot over ­goalkeeper David Ospina and into the net. Vincent Kompany scores the second of Man City's three goals against Arsenal That was Arsenal’s soft centre summed up. It was woeful defending from Mustafi, who had to be stronger, while Aguero claimed his 199th goal for City and his 30th in 34 appearances – the fourth campaign in the past seven he has reached that mark. The striker’s contribution could be contrasted with the effort of Arsenal’s record signing, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who ambled around the pitch, and for such a quick striker was off the pace. Aubameyang could even have opened the scoring, but was slow to convert Mesut Ozil’s pass, allowing Kyle Walker to challenge him and Bravo to smother the ball, and he was then somehow caught by Kompany in a race for the ball and was eased off it by the City captain. It was just not good enough. City mob their goalscoring captain Kompany Credit: REUTERS Contrast that, also, with the determination Kompany showed in claiming his goal and in the awful defending that led to it, as Arsenal needlessly conceded a corner and failed to mark Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the area as Kevin De Bruyne cut it back to him. The first-time shot was diverted home by Kompany with an outstretched boot, ahead of Laurent Koscielny, and the sense of joy he showed was a release of all the frustration felt over his injury problems. It also meant it was game over. Already. Wenger complained that it should have been ruled out for ­offside – presumably his argument was that Leroy Sane was obstructing Ospina’s view – but straws were being clutched once more. City hold aloft the League Cup trophy Credit: REUTERS Arsenal fans began to stream away, and that became an exodus as City claimed their third. Yet again, it was a result of appalling defending as Wilshere lost the ball for the umpteenth time and Danilo quickly slid a pass through to Silva, who was just too quick, too sharp, for the lumbering Calum Chambers. The wonderful midfielder fired a powerful low shot across Ospina and into the corner of the goal. “Everything went against us,” Wenger later lamented. It did not. Arsenal were simply, unarguably, not good enough. “One down, more to go!” De Bruyne later tweeted. It felt like a promise rather than a hope or boast. City under Guardiola have their lift-off. 6:57PM Here's Arsene "In the game we had the first good chance, a very easy one that we missed. We made a big mistake after that for the first goal. We controlled them quite well in the first half. We made a poor start to the second half. We are unlucky as well because the second goal is offside. I wanted to make a change at 2-0 but the game didn't stop. Overall congratulations to Man City. "When you lose games and make mistakes you have to accept criticism. It's emotional after a final so you do not want to get too much into criticism. We have to recover quickly. We came to the final, we lost, we now have to focus on the next Premier League game. "When you lose 3-0 you of course have to look at defending better. I did feel that for periods in the game we defended well but we then lost concentration and against good teams you will be punished. "It's not the application that's missing, it's just lapses in concentration in key moments. I do believe we were unlucky, I've just watched the second goal again, it was an important goal in this game and it was 100% offside. We didn't give too many chances away today but we gave easy chances away." Schadenfreude. 6:51PM Winners are grinners Kyle Walker: "It's been a long time coming, it's good to get my first one. I was nervous coming in today after missing out a couple of times here before. We needed to kill the game a bit, Sergio's goal was well taken and did that for us." Kevin De Bruyne: "Last time I missed it because of injury, it's nice to play and very happy that we won it. We deserved to win, and we now have to go onto Thursday. We have a good feeling all season but it's not finished yet, we know what we have to do in the league and in the Champions League." 6:45PM Pep tells us "We are so happy, big congratulations for all of Man City, the big bosses, and all of our fans. The first half was not good, a lot of mistakes in the simple passes. The second half we played with more courage and personality, in the second half we were outstanding. We now have to focus absolutely on the Premier League. It's for Manchester City, it's not for me." One down... 6:33PM Kompany lifts the trophy Pep Guardiola has stayed downstairs and wants to leave the medal collection and cup lifting to his players, despite this being his first trophy in this country with City. Man of the Match and captain Vincent Kompany does the honours, the first part of what will certainly be a double and could turn out to be a treble. They get the headlines, the plaudits, the medals and the trophy, but there's a hell of an inquest to be held into exactly what Arsenal were up to this afternoon. First of many? Talk to me about that one lads. 6:31PM City climbing the steps City making their long way up to the royal box to collect the trophy. 6:26PM Man of the Match Kompany says... "Before the game honestly I thought I was going to score. I came close a few times. It's a bit of luck on the day but also self belief as well. I've been 15 years in the game, I'm training well and supporting the lads when I don't play and I give everything when I do play. You get the call up and do the job." Captain fantastic. 6:24PM Full time Man City 3 Arsenal 0 Pep Guardiola wins his first trophy in the UK at an absolute canter. The League Cup continues to elude Arsene Wenger after 22 years. As one-sided a cup final as you'll ever see, Arsenal simply didn't turn up. Aguero, Kompany and Silva with the goals. 6:20PM 90 mins Three minutes added. Seems unnecessarily cruel. Not ideal. 6:18PM 88 mins Aguero goes off to a standing ovation. Young Phil Foden comes on, 17 years old. 6:17PM 87 mins Otamendi gets across the near post and hammers a dangerous Arsenal cross behind for a corner. Solid. 6:15PM 84 mins Wilshere getting cranky (low blow to do a cigarette joke here?), pushing Jesus away requiring Craig Pawson to intervene with a yellow. More stewards than Arsenal fans inside Wembley now. Only ten more minutes Jack. 6:11PM 80 mins Good bit of keeping from Bravo, sliding under Iwobi and denying him a one on one chance. Fernandinho injured earlier, Walker now injured fouling Xhaka, not ideal with Premier League and Champions League commitments coming up. 6:07PM 76 mins Jesus returns These sides meet again in the league on Thursday of course, but any thought of City taking the foot off the gas allayed by the introduction of Gabriel Jesus from the bench. Just what Arsenal need. Neville is just a permanent background noise at the moment, 17 minutes into a fuming monologue and showing no signs of coming up for air. "These Arsenal players have had far too many chances over far too many years. They've proved to everybody else they're not good enough. Arsene Wenger's faith in them has been far too great." Jesus rises again. 6:05PM 75 mins Arsenal have had a shot Hold that front page. Xhaka shoots over from 30 yards out. 6:02PM 72 mins Ramsey off for Iwobi Started the game well but this is something of a mercy killing from Arsene Wenger. Ramsey, "one of the walkers", trudges off and Alex Iwobi comes on. 5:57PM 65 mins Danny Welbeck comes on for Arsenal, Neville has gone rogue. "They're an absolute disgrace. Walking on the football pitch at Wembley. Ramsey, Xhaka, they've given up. They're a disgrace. Spineless. At least City are playing properly." Any score you like. 5:55PM GOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!! MAN CITY 3 Arsenal 0 (David Silva 64 mins) Where Arsenal go, is 3-0 down. Jack Wilshere tries to pull a ball out of the air on the corner of the penalty box and loses it. City work Silva into the left channel of the penalty box and he finishes low across Ospina into the far corner for 3-0. Arsenal 0 - 3 Man City (David Silva, 65 min) 5:52PM 62 mins Low City cross from the right nearly has Sane in for a third at the near post. Arsenal briefly break three v two but Ozil plays a poor pass and the move breaks down. The quality of this final has been in association with the tournament's sponsors. A fitting finale to a trainwreck of a competition.— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) February 25, 2018 5:51PM 61 mins Well, I don't really know where Arsenal go from here. Poor in the first half, they've barely taken part in the second. Not at the races, and City haven't even played that well. Gary Neville: "Look at Ramsey he's walking, Xhaka is walking, Ozil is walking. Don't walk. Don't walk at Wembley. Run. Look at Ramsey and Xhaka, look at them walking back, central midfield players." Thoroughly deserved. Vincent Kompany comfortably the best player on the pitch today. He's been everywhere.— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) February 25, 2018 5:48PM GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!! MAN CITY 2 Arsenal 0 (Vincent Kompany 57 mins) It's Kompany that wins the corner in the first place with a surprisingly turn of pace and skill wide left. City play the set piece to the edge of the area where Gundogan hits a low shot through a crowded area - Kompany, on his return to the side, diverts the ball in from close range. Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City (Vincent Kompany, 58 min) 5:45PM 53 mins Bravo gone walkabout This battle of the reserve team goalkeepers has taken another twist. Ball over the top from Arsenal looking to set Aubameyang away doesn't seem to pose too much danger with Kyle Walker in attendance, but Bravo comes tearing out 45 yards to clear and then misses the ball entirely. City escape. At the other end, Arsenal play a series of increasingly risky and elaborate passes in their own six yard box eventually forcing Ospina into a half volleyed clearance under his own cross bar. Madness. Coming through. 5:40PM 49 mins Fernandinho has picked up a knock, looks like a hamstring, suspect his race might be run. Still an odd game this, neither team really playing as they can, City marginally better while playing at about 65%. The other Silva is coming on for City. Look at Ospina taking his goal kicks short, like an idiot. You don’t set up goals doing that.— Huw Davies (@thehuwdavies) February 25, 2018 5:37PM 47 mins Chambers carded As much as things change, they stay the same. City going down the left, attacking Arsenal first with Sane and then Aguero who draws a foul and a yellow card from Chambers. Free kick whipped across, headed out for a corner. Right the way through the area, returned with interest, half volley from Kompany deflects and bobbles just wide of the post. 5:34PM 46 mins We are back underway. No subs. Reminded that Monreal was replaced by Kolasinac early in the first half. City lead 1-0, neither side really playing well. 5:30PM Second half Mustafi's defending being compared to Under 9s football in the half time analysis - an insult to a lot of the Under 9s football I've watched in my time. Anyway, let's see if there's a bit more quality for us in the second half. >If you concede a goal direct from a goal kick the entire defence should be fined two weeks wages !!— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) February 25, 2018 5:21PM Half Time Man City 1 Arsenal 0 Not one anybody will be telling the grandkids about, unless the grandkids have been particularly naughty. A game summed up by its only goal - Bravo punts down the middle of the field, Mustafi produces a piece of defending that would disgrace a pub player, Aguero lobs out-of-position Ospina for 1-0. City have been the better side but far from fluent. Arsenal have spent the half wasting a succession of set pieces around the edge of the box. Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City shots on goal Arsenal vs Man City 5:18PM 45 mins We'll have two more minutes. 5:14PM 41 mins Arsenal want Fernandinho sent off for a late challenge on Wilshere moments after his yellow card. Craig Pawson plays advantage and doesn't return to the incident, and he's right - Wilshere was looking for it. Tightrope for the second half though. But mum! 5:11PM 39 mins For one moment there I thought we'd seen some genuine brilliance from Aguero as he almost manages to chip Ospina again from an impossible angle. De Bruyne follows up in the panic but can only find the side netting. 5:09PM 37 mins Odd pattern of the game continuing, with City conceding a succession of free kicks around their own penalty area. Arsenal have wasted half a dozen of them in the opening half hour, and Xhaka's nothing chip to nowhere isn't changing that. 5:07PM 36 mins Fernandinho booked A flurry of yellow cards, Fernandinho the latest for catching Wilshere late. Ozil stands over the free kick on the left corner of the penalty box... Too high for Mustafi. Poor. Fernandinho cautioned. 5:07PM 35 mins Vincent Kompany rolling back the years there, chasing Aubameyang into the City area and then, just as the Arsenal man looks like he's away, through on goal and ready to shoot, he puts a big shoulder in, sends him flying and brings the ball away. 5:06PM 34 mins City free kick wide on the right, to be whipped across by David Silva. Aguero heads over at the near post. 5:03PM 31 mins Ramsey booked Aaron Ramsey almost takes David Silva's face off with a boot so high it's just frightened air traffic controllers at Heathrow. Yellow. Bad lad. 5:02PM 30 mins Sight of goal for Wilshere after good approach work from Aubameyang, City clear the ball behind and get a goal kick when it should be a corner. VAR man had popped out to put the kettle on. 5:01PM 29 mins City pressing for a second Apart from Bravo launching it down the field, City's biggest threat so far is Sane running at Bellerin, who is on a booking already. On this occasion the City man drives into the area from wide left and forces a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece, played short, Vincent Kompany heads over. 4:57PM 25 mins Monreal off Monreal is going off injured, possibly sustained during that earlier dive in the penalty area, and Kolasinac comes on to replace him. Does it hurt when I do this? 4:55PM 23 mins Bellerin booked Arsenal again caught out by one long ball down the field from Bravo. This time Bellerin wrestles De Bruyne to the floor and gets his fifth booking of the season. Of all the things Arsenal must have planned for with City this week, old Wimbledon-style punts off the keeper seemingly, and understandably, pretty low on the list. 4:54PM 22 mins Wilshere wins a free kick from City 25 yards out from goal, left of centre. Aarom Ramsey, who's started pretty well, steps up... low under the wall, Bravo watches it all the way and saves comfortably. 4:51PM 19 mins Guardiola and Wenger are involved in a heated incident on the touchline. If Arsenal genuinely think that was a foul on Mustafi by Aguero they're kidding themselves. I for one would like to hear from Roy Keane. Or Graeme Souness. Or both. Easy as that. 4:50PM GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!! MAN CITY 1 Arsenal 0 (Sergio Aguero 18 mins) City take the lead. A rare long ball off Bravo catches Mustafi out, dropping in behind the centre back and allowing Aguero to run straight through the middle of Arsenal and chip Ospina who's miles off his line. Mustafi wants a foul, but it never is, lousy defending. Aguero has scored in his last five games against Arsenal and has 199 goals for City. Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City (Sergio Agüero, 18 min) 4:49PM 17 mins And that, as much as anything else, led to my drinking problem. 4:44PM 12 mins Arsenal penalty appeal Referee Craig Pawson shows no interest in theatrical fall in the penalty box by Monreal. Looked a dive.... Is a dive, lucky not to be booked. 4:43PM 11 mins Caption comp Not sure what's going on here. 4:40PM 7 mins Huge Aubameyang chance Arsenal's first attack should bring the opening goal. Wilshere rampaging through the heart of the City team sets up Ramsey who squares it through the goal mouth for Aubameyang to seemingly tap in the opener from close range. Bravo produces two outstanding saves at point blank range to keep him out. Possibly just offside on second glance so might have been scrubbed off on the review had it gone in. Bravo! 4:38PM 6 mins Aguero tricking, tripping and skipping into the area before seeing a shot blocked at close range. City, stung by what happened on Monday, really look in the mood. Kevin De Bruyne has just pulled a ball out of the sky with a first touch they'll write sonnets about in a thousand year's time. 4:37PM 4 mins Monreal and Kyle Walker have an almighty collision in front of the technical area and City have a free kick but, as we've come to expect, the knock it short and quick and we're back into a pattern of them dominating possession with Arsenal trying to hold a firm back five in front of them. 4:33PM 1 min Straight away, Sane getting at Arsenal down the City left, wins the game's first corner for his side. Silva's delivery is too deep for everybody but City return the ball to the danger zone and sane sees a volley blocked behind for another corner. First shot in anger. 4:32PM Kick off Arsenal kick off going from left to right as we're looking. You'll all be absolutely delighted to hear that VAR is in play today I'm sure. Let's see if we can get this finished before last orders eh? 4:28PM Ready to go Immaculate rendition of the anthem. Next it's Ray Winstone shouting at you to "bet, bet, bet nagggggghhhhhh (when the fun stops, stop)" and then we can kick off. 4:24PM Teams in the tunnel Here come the teams, anthems and handshakes away from kick off. Plastic flags a-go-go. 4:16PM Pre-match chat Here's Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola going completely off script with highly controversial pre-match interviews... Wenger: "You're always nervous, it's a big fight to get there and on the day you want to turn up with a strong performance. We're playing a strong opponent, we want to be at our best and be efficient." Pep: "Unfortunately we still have some injured and suspended players but it's a final, it's not about the guys who are not available. It's important to be in the final, we want to win it, and after that we have the Premier League in our mind and trying to reach the final of the Champions League." 4:12PM Yellow ribbon-gate Here comes Pep, ribbon seemingly in place. Pleased to see we're focused on the important stuff wrong with this great game of ours. �� @Dsquared2pic.twitter.com/QIgDRFXqh7— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2018 4:08PM Showpiece final for troubled competition A meeting between two of the so-called 'big five' in the Premier League is the final the competition organisers, and Far Eastern sponsors, would have wanted. But such a showpiece event is hardly with the Football League and Carabao deserve. Already a distant last priority for even most Championship teams, treated as a reserve competition by many until the very latter stages, the League Cup has been squeezed by the power of the premier League, Champions League and fixture congestion for several years. The last thing it needs is to be consistently undermined by its own organiser and backer, but that is what's happened on several occasions this season. The first round draw, at the behest of the fizzy drink manufacturer, was held in Bangkok, shown live on a Facebook feed with no sound, and featured Charlton Athletic and Forest Green being drawn twice, Oxford not getting a game at all and Wimbledon pulling Swindon despite them both being unseeded. With that nicely ironed out, we moved on to round two. Which was also seeded, presumably at the say so of some wrong ‘un who looked at Premier League teams not taking the competition seriously and decided the answer was to give them an easier passage to the latter rounds. Somebody who looked at the dusty old cup draws with Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly calmly pulling numbers out of a velvet bag and thought “this needs sexing up a bit”. Say what you like about two crusty old suits and a sack of balls but Charlton Athletic only ever got one game when it was done like that, and they knew whether it was home and away. Which is more than many teams in round two did. The seeding apparently necessitated a third bowl of coloured balls - presumably because they like colours in Singapore or something - to decide whether the team drawn first would be home or away. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I didn’t really see a problem with the old classic idea of the team coming out first being at home, but then I’m the sort of person who thinks Love Island is a bit rubbish so I don’t think I’m “target demographic” for Plymouth v Notts County in the early rounds of the League Cup any more. QPR v Brentford, Watford v Bristol City, Palace v Ipswich and Norwich v Charlton were all originally announced as the other way around by John Salako who misunderstood what the red ball with HOME written on it meant. West Ham were drawn at home, but played away anyway, because as part of “the most successful stadium migration in history” (c Karen Brady) they couldn't play at home in August. Furthermore, Burton and Wolverhampton were in the unseeded half of the southern draw while Newport County were in the unseeded half of the northern draw – nice local derby with Leeds for the team from South Wales. Aston Villa also ended up in the north half, despite being further south than Wolverhampton and Burton. The organisers apparently struggling to even make head or tail of the Reader’s Digest Book of the Road. One would think, after all that, having completely devalued the competition, having made yourselves an absolute laughing stock, having done enormous damage to the brand of the title sponsor in the eyes of the public they’re presumably targeting with their liquified sugar, that you’d keep the third round draw on the straight and narrow. No seeding, no third pot, no John Salarko, no farce – just nice and simple home and away and let’s try and salvage some sort of worth and respect from this plane wreck. Nah. They held the third round draw in Beijing. At four in the morning UK time. The league said this was to “give the competition maximum exposure in the UK (!!), China and the South East Asian market” which is “not only an important factor for the EFL, but also our sponsors Carabao” but went onto admit “the draw itself will not be televised in the UK, or anywhere else.” And so this nonsense continued. The quarter final draw was supposed to be broadcast live on Twitter, but was delayed for more than an hour and then suddenly just issued as a press release with who'd drawn who. The Football League certainly aren't adverse to completely wrecking one of their own competitions - see the absolute state of what remains of the Football League Trophy - but it's been a real shame to see a historic comp like the League Cup treated the way it has been this season and we can only hope that a great game this afternoon between two of the best teams in the country goes someway to redeeming it. Stage is set. 3:52PM Guardiola on guard City manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, is trying to guard against nerves in his side ahead of this first final of the season. "In the first finals you are more nervous than the next one. I try to say to the players to play more like a friendly game to be more calm, but also with more courage. “I think it’s a game we have to try to enjoy the most, it’s a final. We are here to play these types of game, why to be nervous? Why to worry about win, win, win. “It’s just a game. But no regrets after the game. It’s too late for ‘I didn’t do what I should do’ because it’s a final.” Yellow ribbon-gate escalating. 3:45PM Arsenal's leading man #YoPierre#AFCvMCFCpic.twitter.com/k0Xnv8m7HE— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2018 3:41PM Wenger looking to make history Although he hasn't won the Legaue Cup before, and the debate about how long he can/should carry on as manager will continue to coin it in for ArsenalFanTV for many a long month to come, Arsene Wenger does have a very good Wembley record. The recent defeat to Spurs here, in what is of course technically a Tottenham home match, broke a run of nine straight wins at the national stadium for the Arsenal manager. Wenger has won on each of his last nine trips to Wembley when it’s been a neutral venue and since April 2014 has won three FA Cup semi-finals, three FA Cup finals and three Community Shields. Wenger hunts first League Cup. 3:36PM Arsenal line up The Gunners look like this... Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal; Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil; Aubameyang Subs: Cech, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Welbeck Stage is set. 3:31PM City team The Man City team for today's battle of the reserve goalkeepers looks like this... City: Bravo, Walker, Kompany (c), Otamendi, Danilo, Fernandinho, Silva, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero Subs: Ederson, Stones, Laporte, Bernardo, Zinchenko, Foden, Jesus 3:05PM Hello, good afternoon, and welcome... It's a sure sign that spring is sprung when we're bracing ourselves for three feet of snow and preparing to hand out the first major domestic trophy of the season. Man City, denied a historical quadrupal by, of all things, Wigan Athletic on Monday can put that behind them and take the first step towards a mere treble if they pick up the League Cup this afternoon. Their opponents Arsenal are hoping, for the third season in a row, to cover up a disappointing league season with some silverware - FA Cup winners for the last two seasons but Arsene Wenger has never won this trophy in all his 22 years in charge. Kick off at half four, we'll have team news for you just as soon as it arrives.